1995 - Conceeded and got a PC / Atari
Jaguar ( I know its not a computer but I reverse engineered it (re-wrote
the ROM) and used it as a computer
(via parallel link to my Atari ST), I wrote the hidden game "Painter" a
crush roller type game, for the unreleased Jaguar game "Slam Racer" by
Sinister Developments. Apparently it's out on the net somewhere, yet
to see a decent Jag Emu tho!

1996 - 2003 Various Different PCs, ALL AMD!!! Intel Sucks

How and when did enter
the ST scene ?

Was so long ago I forget sometimes, got into cracking as it was a
challenge, tho the early "Rob Northern" protection was a
piece of piss, people thought I was great 'cos I could crack it (just
patched trap #1 and waited for #$3D (file open) then let it decrypt
the .pro file and saved it back out as a .prg).

How did you end up joining Automation
?

Was EGB of Sub-Humans In Turkey (or SHIT for short) who dragged me
in, was a great time and most of the guys were diamonds.

Were you in a sub crew
of Automation , eg Guardians of Logik, BBC etc or
were you just an individual like Vapour and Sharaz Jek ?

My own lame crew (Pyrotechnics) was broken up as Xerud (a major lamer)
used me as a stepping stone and dirtied the name. I decided I was better
off NOT being in a sub-group, tho was often thought of as a member
of Sub Humans.....

What
did you actually do in Automation , just cracking ?

I optimized the packer and made a nice GEM front-end for it. also
did cracks and pissed off SYNC by disassembling their tracker (demo
version) and fixing the bugs and adding the missing features (it's
on the Automation Tracker disk)

GEM Frontend by SSR

Which do you prefer ?

Cracking, still do it, tho very low key!

Are you a self taught
hacker ? or did other members assist you in the early days ?

Totally self taught, it's the best way!! Taught a few people but
gave that up as they all turned out to be lamers.

Do you remember your
first crack ?

Um, first game was Arkanoid I think, first app was Pro-24 (code
for dongle was stored in reverse, sneaky running code in the stack!!)

What was the hardest
game to hack and why ?

Was some Thalion game, can't remember the name, I don't think anyone
did it!! They knew their stuff, sync encrypted always fucked me up,
tho I did jump in and have a look around after the decryption, but
that didn't help either!!!

Who in your opinion was
the best hacker on the Atari ST ? (I must stop asking this question
as the answer is always the same! Shw)

Definately had to be Was-Not-Was / Vapour, total genius!!

Did you meet most of
the other members ?

Yes

Any stories ?

um, keeping quiet about that, made a prat of myself at the Middlesbourgh
party!!!

Did you play any part
in the Automation <> Pompey feud ?

Nah, but was friends with Birdy during the Birdy <> L.S.D. feud.

I remember you released
the Automation music tracker menu (#329) did you get
much hassle from the coders of the trackers e.g TCB and Sync ?

Answered that one earlier!! TCB apparently wanted my guts, but
I never heard anything except rumours.

Were you ever on the
verge of been nabbed by F.A.S.T. or the cops ?

Yes and no, Scottish law rules, if you
own upto everything they can't touch you. ie. if you own upto 500
counts of copyright theft, under scottish law you have to be charged
on each one individually, it costs too much so they throw it outta
court. Was caught twice, but got away with it!!!

Were you one of the
members wearing the Automation t-shirts at the C.E.S
show?

Sure was, I was also a trade representative, that pissed off a few people!!!

Were you ever in any
other crew apart from Automation ?

Not really, in other words, it's too embarrasing to talk about!!!
(ok I was Count Duckula of Cynix, I did the boot loader/Menu's)

Do you still have any
Atari hardware, if so do you still crank up your ST ?

Unfortunatley I dont have an ST anymore, but I do have some cool emulators
to run my automation disks on. (not many like my A242 Menu tho!!)

Have you seen any of
the more recent ST demo releases (yes there still are
some! ) ?

No, must look for those!

Are you still in touch
with the ST scene ?

I wish, those guys were cool, I miss that welsh boyo, um THE LAW as
he was a funny and talented guy, lost contact with him a couple of years
back.

Have you used any of
the ST emulators, impressions ?

Oh yes, anything that keeps the ST alive is cool. It's a shame that
Atari Corp. churned out decent hardware and then didn't support it
properly. The ST was a cool computer and not just a glorified games
machine like the amiga!

Did you ever slag off anyone you wish you hadn't
?

Yes, and thankfully I never got a sore face.

What's the most innovating thing you ever saw on
the ST ?

PLUG: DiviChrome (renamed to VidiChrome 2) my 4096 Colour Digitizer
software, using a Greyscale Scanner and B/W Camera. I impressed myself
with the coding on that one!!!

What's the best ST crack you've ever seen ?

Self Praise, is no Praise at all, or so they say, but who cares:
My version of "Carrier Command", it's the only one I know
of that doesn't crash after 15 mins. and my one file version (800MB)
of "Star Glider 2" featuring SSR-Load&#8482; worked
great on 520STs too!!!

What did you do after
the ST scene faded away ?

Got into drink and drugs

Fave TV show ?

Six Feet Under

If you could travel back to 1988 would you do anything
different ?

I would have stayed in the closet longer

Fave software house ?

Thalion

What do you think of
the current Computer/Console market ?

Not too bad, I like the XBox, it's as easy as the ST was to modify!!

What are you upto now
?

Programming (still), and generally being
lazy, I had did my dream of owning a computer shop for a few years,
and am now having a rest.